USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 77
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Thomas L. Staples has achieved a notable work in furtherance of the educational and general business interests of Fort Wayne, where he established and is the executive head of the International Businss College, an institution of the highest grade in its special domain of service and one that has gained a large and representative supporting patronage, its high reputation for efficiency in all departments consti- tuting its most valuable advertising and best business asset. Mr. Staples has had broad and varied experience in his special field of educational work and in the development of his present fine school has shown marked progressiveness and executive ability, the college now having secure status with the best institutions of the kind in the middle west. Thomas
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Leslie Staples was born in the city of Toronto, Canada, June 23, 1865, and is one of a family of seven children, of whom four are now living. He is a son of Thomas and Matilda (Brisbin) Staples, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in the province of Ontario, Canada. He whose name initiates this review attended the public schools of his native province until he had completed a course of study in the high school at Harriston, and he supplemented this discipline by an effective course in the Canadian School of Commerce, at Chatham, Onta- rio. For three years thereafter he was a successful teacher in a business college at Chatham, Ontario, and then went to the city of Saginaw, Michigan, where he served one year as an instructor in the Bliss Business College. In 1890 he came to Fort Wayne and established the Inter- national Business College, of which he has since continued the head and which has been developed to its present high standard under his vigorous and able management. Mr. Staples is a man of civic loyalty and pro- gressiveness, is a Republican in his political allegiance, has received the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, besides being affiliated also with the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, as is he also with Fort Wayne Lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. He holds membership in the local Commercial and Rotary Clubs, as well as the Country Club, and is a popular figure in both business and social circles in the city of his home. Both he and his wife hold mem- bership in the Presbyterian church. The marriage of Mr. Staples to Miss Bertha Digge was solemnized, June 29, 1891, and they have two daughters-Louise and Jean.
William F. Stasell is the fortunate owner of one of the excellent farms of Jackson township, where he has maintained his residence since the spring of 1912, and in the intervening period he has made various improvements of permanent order, including the erection of minor farm buildings, the installation of tile drainage, the building of fences, etc. Energy and thrift are shown in the general appearance of the farm, which is given over to diversified agriculture and to the growing of a consistent amount of live stock. Mr. Stasell is a native of the old Key- stone state and is of staunch German lineage, as are many other of the representative farmers of Allen county. He was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on March 14, 1869, a son of Gerhardt and Eva (Schubert) Stasell, both of whom were children at the time of the immi- gration of the respective families from Germany to America. The par- ents were reared in Pennsylvania and there their marriage was sol- emnized. They settled in Allegheny county, that state, and there the death of the devoted wife and mother occurred. Gerhardt Stasell later removed with his children to Missouri and finally established his resi- dence in La Salle county, Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death having occurred in September, 1901, and his entire active life having been one of close association with agricultural pur- suits. He was the father of a fine family of eighteen children, of whom the sixth, Clara, died in infancy. The names of the children who attained to adult age are here recorded in the respective order of birth : Dora, George, Elizabeth, Gerhardt, Frederick, Anna, William F., Henry, John, August, Louis, Emma, Philip, Katherine, Isabel, Charles and Wal- ter. The early educational advantages of William F. Stasell were lim- ited to a somewhat brief and irregular attendance in the public schools
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of Pennsylvania and Missouri, and he has matured his knowledge effect- ively in the great school of practical experience and through self-dis- cipline. As a youth he found employment at farm work in Missouri, where he also was associated for some time in the work of a sawmill. After removal to Illinois he worked as a farm hand in that state for ten years, being employed by the month. In the spring of 1900 he took unto himself a wife, and she has proved his loyal coadjutor in the efforts that have brought to them independence and definite prosperity. After his marriage Mr. Stasell continued his operations as a farmer on rented land in La Salle county, Illinois, until his removal to his present home- stead farm, on February 28, 1912. Here he purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres, in Sections 26 and 22, Jackson township, the farm being situated three miles distant from the village of Edgerton and seven miles from Monroeville, from which latter place the family have service on rural mail route No. 1. Mr. Stasell is known as one of the energetic and progressive exponents of farm enterprise in Jackson town- ship, he and his family have gained a wide circle of loyal friends in the community, he is a Republican in his political proclivities, and was appointed a special deputy sheriff of the county in 1917, by Sheriff Gillie. February 14, 1900, recorded the marriage of Mr. Stasell to Miss Rosie Hagenbucher, who was born in Germany, a daughter of Tobias Hagenbucher, who came to America when Mrs. Stasell was a child. The family home was established in the city of Chicago, where he con- ducted a store and milk depot for a period of fourteen years. For two years thereafter he was on a farm near Crown Point, Indiana, after which he returned with his family to Chicago. Six years later he removed to his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, near Crown Point, Indiana, his wife having passed to the life eternal a quarter of a century ago and the four surviving children being Caroline, Rosie, Louis and Louisa. Mr. and Mrs. Stasell have four children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here indicated: Harold F., January 12, 1901; Eva L., September, 1903; Leonard H., March, 1904; and Inez A., April 17, 1914.
Rev. John Steger, the able and honored pastor of the Catholic parish of St. Aloysius, near Sheldon, has given virtually all of his services in the priesthood within the borders of the state of Indiana, and his conse- crated labors have been fruitful in the furtherance of the spiritual and temporal prosperity of the various parishes in which he has faithfully labored. Father Henry Hellbacher, who was pastor of St. Aloysius church, passed to the life eternal on August 11, 1909, and for one month thereafter Rev. Fessler was the pastoral incumbent. He was succeeded by Father John Biedermann, who here continued his earnest labors until his death, which occurred November 26, 1915, he having celebrated in July of that year the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Of this revered pastor Father John Steger became the suc- cessor, and he has found gracious satisfaction in continuing the faithful service that had been rendered by his predecessors. He has vitalized the work of the parish, which has a congregation of fifty-five families, the parochial school having an enrollment of sixty pupils and being in charge of three sisters and of two other teachers. Preparations are being made for the erection of a new church edifice within the near future, and in this laudable enterprise Father Steger is receiving the earnest co-opera- tion of his congregation. Father Steger was born in the Kingdom of
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Bavaria, Germany, on June 13, 1875, and is a son of Peter and Francesca (Heinz) Steger, both of whom passed their entire lives in Bavaria, where the father was a prosperous farmer and where he served also as a com- missioner for the Bavarian government. Father John Steger continued his studies in the schools of his native land until he had profited by the advantages of the gymnasium, which compares to the American high school. In 1901 he came to the United States, and completed his philo- sophieal and ecclesiastical studies in St. Mary's Academy, his ordination to the priesthood having taken place at Fort Wayne on the 19th of June, 1905. His first pastoral charge was at Decatur, this state, where he re- mained thirteen months. He was then assigned to a church in the city of Kokomo, where he continued his ministrations two years, the ensuing two years having found him the incumbent of a pastorate at Garrett, DeKalb county. He was then assigned to a charge at Covington, Foun- tain county, where he remained one year. During the following three months he was at Goodland, Newton county, from which place he was transferred to St. Mary's church in Fort Wayne, where he remained until the assumption of his present charge, in the autumn of 1915.
Louis C. Steger has been closely identified with business interests in his native city since his early youth and now holds the responsible office of purchasing agent for S. F. Bowser & Company, one of the impor- tant industrial and commercial concerns of Fort Wayne. He was born in this eity on August 10, 1876, a son of Rudolph and Johanna (Baals) Steger, who still maintain their home in Fort Wayne, where the father is living virtually retired, after a long and successful business career. Rudolph Steger was born at Kiel, Germany, and was a young man when he eame to Fort Wayne, where he found employment as a cabinet- maker in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Later he engaged in the hardware business and became one of the representative merchants of the city in which he is now living retired. He has been influential in community affairs, is a loyal and liberal citizen and served for some time as a member of the board of public safety of Fort Wayne. In this city was solemnized his marriage, his wife having been born at Reading, Pennsylvania, and having been a child of three years when her parents established their home in Fort Wayne, both she and her husband being zealous communicants of the Lutheran church. Of their children, Albert H. and Gustave C. reside in the city of Toledo, Ohio; Louis C., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Charles F. is employed in the extensive Fort Wayne plant of the Bass Foundry & Machine Company ; Theodore C. is an employe in the Fort Wayne shops of the Wabash Railroad; and the other four children did not live to attain to adult age. After having profited by the advantages afforded in the parochial schools of the Lutheran church in Fort Wayne Louis C. Steger pursued a course of higher study in Concordia College, of this city. For two years thereafter he was associated with his father's hardware business in a clerical capacity and then assumed a clerkship in the offices of the Pennsylvania Railroad shops in his native city. Later he was for seven years employed at the Fort Wayne Electric Works and since that time has been connected with S. F. Bowser & Company, Inc., in the service of which he now holds the position of purchasing agent, as previously noted. Mr. Steger gives a staunch allegiance to the Republican party, he and his wife are active commu- nieants of Trinity English Lutheran church, and in the Masonic frater-
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nity he is a member of Summit City Lodge No. 170, and has also made advancement in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he is affiliated with the Summit City Lodge of Perfection, at Fort Wayne. January 16, 1901, recorded the marriage of Mr. Steger to Miss Lottie Whitney, who likewise was born and reared in Fort Wayne and is a daughter of Frank and Adelaide (Green) Whitney. Mr. and Mrs. Steger have a fine little son, Robert Whitney, who was born July 25, 1906.
Daniel Steiner, as manager of the Huntertown Grain Company, of which he is a stockholder, exercises important influence touching the com- mercial and industrial activities of his native county and is essentially one of the representative and popular young business men of his native state. Mr. Steiner was born at Berne, Adams county, Indiana, on Sep- tember, 1885, and is a son of Peter D. and Barbara (Moser) Steiner, who are of staunch German lineage and who still reside on their fine home- stead farm, near Berne, Adams county. The names of their children are here noted in respective order of birth : Amos, Sarah, Judith, Daniel, Levi, Noah, Katie, Emma, Albert, Samuel, Ezra and John. All of the children are living except Noah, who died about 1901, and the subject of this review is the only one of the number not residing in the home county of Adams. Daniel Steiner was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and under the earnest guidance of his father he early learned the dignity and value of honest toil. He profited by the advan- tages of the public schools of his native county and thereafter continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority. For nine months thereafter he was employed as a farm worker on another of the farms of his native county, and he then became associated with the Berne Hay & Grain Company, with which he maintained his connection about four years. He then came to Huntertown, and here he has been manager of the Huntertown Grain Company since September 1, 1911-an aggressive, energetic and resourceful young man who has wielded potent influence in the upbuild- ing of the substantial and important commercial enterprise with which he is thus identified. The company was organized in January, 1910, and was incorporated with a capital stock of eight thousand dollars, the same having been increased to thirty thousand dollars in the spring of 1916. The officers of the corporation are as here noted, and they are its largest stockholders: Dr. Frank Greenwell, president; Charles Bleke, vice- president; C. E. Preston, secretary and treasurer; and Daniel Steiner, manager. The business has shown a substantial expansion, and in 1916 it rendered to its stockholders a dividend of ten per cent. The enterprise included not only the buying and shipping of grain but also the handling of lumber and coal, and its material and commercial facilities are of the best. The company has recently erected for the lumber department of its business a building fifty-eight by one hundred feet in dimensions, the grain elevator is of modern type, a new grain dryer has been erected, and the value of this physical property is about six thousand dollars. Continuous employment is given to three men, and the force is increased at such times as the activities of the business demand. Mr. Steiner gives his close supervision to all details of the business and also takes loyal interest in community affairs, his political allegiance being given to the Democratic party. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Metho- dist Episcopal church. October 31, 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Steiner to Huldah, daughter of Christian and Sophia (Bailey) Stauffer,
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the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom still resides on the home farm, near Monroe, Adams county, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Steiner have a daughter, Frieda, who was born in 1915.
Charles J. Steiss has shown himself to be emphatically a man of thought and action and has been influential in connection with civic and business affairs in his native city of Fort Wayne. He is now the secretary of the park commission of Fort Wayne and as a progressive and popular citizen and efficient public official is properly given recog- nition in this history. Mr. Steiss was born in Fort Wayne on February 23, 1874, a son of John George and Maria Magdalena (Rapp) Steiss, both natives of the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, where the former was born in January, 1840, and the latter on January 4, 1845, both having been reared and educated in their native land, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they came to the United States, in 1869. Soon after their arrival in America the parents of the subject of this review established their home in Fort Wayne, where the father opened a well-equipped shop and engaged in the work of his trade, that of cooper. A skilled artisan, he developed a prosperous business and continued in the active management of his cooperage until the close of his life. He was a man of abundant energy, of sterling character and of marked civic loyalty-a citizen who commanded the respect of 'all who knew him. His political support was given to the Democratic party, and both he and his wife were lifelong communicants of the Lutheran church, in which they were members of the St. John's parish in Fort Wayne. Of the children the eldest, John G., Jr., died in 1907, at the age of thirty-six years; Charles J., of this sketch, was the second son; Frederick W. likewise remains in Fort Wayne; Gustave H. and W. Minnie occupy the old family homestead; and Mary is the wife of Michael Fritz, of Fort Wayne. The father passed to the life eternal on October 3, 1893, and the venerable and widowed mother was sum- moned to the "land of the leal" on February 4, 1916. Charles J. Steiss acquired his early education in the parochial schools of St. John's Lutheran church and as a boy began to assist in the work of his father's cooper shop, in which he served an apprenticeship of thorough order. Later he learned the barber's trade and to the same continued to devote his attention about twenty years. For eighteen months thereafter he was associated in the publication of the Fort Wayne Labor Herald, a weekly paper, and in 1906 was appointed to a responsible position in the finance department of the city government, with which branch of the municipal service he continued to be identified four years. For the ensuing two years he was cashier of the state bank of Nuttman & Company, and since that time has given specially efficient service in the office of secretary of the city park commission, in which connection he is able to make practical and productive his deep interest in all that concerns the welfare of his native city. Mr. Steiss is a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party, is actively identified with the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, and both he and his wife are communicants of St. John's Lutheran church. Mr. Steiss has been prominently and earnestly concerned with the affairs of organized labor and has done much to further the cause. For five years he was secretary of the Fort Wayne Trades & Labor Council and was an influential member of the executive board of the Indiana Federation of Labor, besides which he served as delegate to national and international labor conventions, in which he
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was assigned to membership on important committees. In 1912, while attending the annual convention of the League of American Municipal- ities as a representative of Fort Wayne, he was elected to the office of treasurer, which office he held for three years, being re-elected the following year, at Winnipeg, and again in 1914 at Milwaukee. Since he has been identified with the park commission he has also attended all the conventions of the National Conference on City Planning. On August 5, 1895, Mr. Steiss wedded Miss Jennie Blanche Flightner, daughter of Samuel Flightner, a well-known citizen of Williams county, Ohio. Of the six children of this union the first, Carl Luther, died in infancy ; Helen M., Esther L., Irene A., Lucile M., and Ruth Mae are still members of the gracious family circle of the parental home.
Alfred Anthony Stentz was born in Ashland county, Ohio, January 24, 1885, son of Henry C. and Josephine (Petot) Stentz, both natives of the state of Ohio. Mr. Stentz is a traveling salesman, and the family home is in Fort Wayne. They have two children-Mrs. Fred Harber, who lives on Harrison Hill, Fort Wayne, and Alfred Anthony, of this review. He was born and reared in his native county and attended school in Loudonville, Ohio, there completing his high school course in due season. He entered the shoe store of his grandfather in Loudonville and there had his first instruction in the shoe business. His next location was in Cleveland, in the employ of the Walkover Boot Shop, where he spent three years, and then came to Fort Wayne to take charge of the Walkover establishment here. He was twenty-two years of age then, and though young to manage such an establishment, he made good from the start, and the business has grown steadily with the growth of the city. C. E. Petot, of Cleveland, his uncle, was the owner of the business, and Mr. Stentz has come to hold a half interest in the establishment since he became identified with it as manager. The shop is centrally located on the main business street of the city, and each season adds many new and satisfied customers to the firm's clientele. Mr. Stentz married Miss Rose Jamison, of Ashland county, Ohio, daugh- ter of Mrs. Elizabeth Jamison. They are members of the Congregational church and Mr. Stentz is a Mason of the thirty-second degree, an Elk, a member of the Commercial Club and the Rotary Club, in all of which he is popular and prominent.
Leonard D. Stolte .- One of the well-known and capable farmers of Washington township is Leonard D. Stolte, now living on the old home- stead of the family. Mr. Stolte was born in his present community on May 20, 1874, son of Adolph and Elizabeth (Peters) Stolte, both native- born Germans who came to America in their youth, first settling in Indianapolis and later moving to Allen county, where they settled on the farm that later represented the family home and is now the property of the subject. To Adolph and Elizabeth Stolte were born nine children. William is deceased. Charles, Frank, George and Fred were the next in order of birth. Henry, the next child, is deceased; Leonard D., the subject, was the seventh, and was followed by Elizabeth and John, the last named being deceased. The parents passed their last days on the old homestead farm, and Leonard D., who had long devoted himself to the development of the place, came into possession of it at their death. Leonard D. Stolte had a rather better education than the average farm youth, the Fort Wayne Business College affording him some excellent training after he had finished with the local schools, and he has been
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able to utilize the systematic training he had there to excellent advan- tage in the management of his farm. He has been successful in general farming and stock-raising, and is counted among the ablest farmers of the community today. In 1900 Mr. Stolte married Gertrude Ludwig, a daughter of Wilson and Clara (Holman) Ludwig, and six children have been born to them. They are Albert, Herbert, Henry, Donald, Eugene and Marie, all living at the present time. Mr. Stolte was elected to the office of township trustee, in 1913, for a term of four years, and has thus far given an excellent service in that office. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America at Fort Wayne, and with his fam- ily has membership in St. John's Reformed church at Fort Wayne. He is a Democrat in politics.
Thomas Wade Stone is known as a mechanical engineer of distinc- tive ability and as such is manager of the works of the Western Gas Construction Company, 919 Columbia avenue, Fort Wayne. He was born at New Corydon, Jay county, Indiana, on October 4, 1877, being of Irish ancestry on the paternal side and of English in the distaff line. He is a son of Dr. Michael and Mary M. (Elzy) Stone. Dr. Stone was a pioneer citizen of St. Mary's, Ohio, and, when the Civil war was precipi- tated he went forth from that place to do service in defense of the Union. He first enlisted in the ninety days' service, as a member of the Thirty- first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he became captain of Company E. At the expiration of his original term he re-enlisted in the same regi- ment and he continued as an officer of this gallant command during the remainder of the war, at the close of which he received his honorable discharge. After the war he engaged in the practice of medicine at New Corydon, Indiana, and he was as earnest and resourceful in his labors as he was in his effective service as a soldier. Of his four children the subject of this review is the eldest and the only son; Maude E. is the wife of Hon. Theodore H. Tangemann, of Wapakoneta, Ohio; Bessie is the wife of Hon. O. J. Boesel, of the same place; and Margaret resides at New Bremen, Ohio, where the parents established their residence in the early '80s. John S. Elzy, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, likewise was a Union soldier in the Civil war. He enlisted at Decatur, Indiana, and continued in active service until he was wounded and captured, it having been his fate to be in Libby Prison, liberation having come only after the victory of the Union arms. Thomas W. Stone gained his early education in the public schools of New Bremen, Ohio, and thereafter attended for one year the Armour Institute of Technology, in Chicago. He entered the University of Ohio in 1902, and was there graduated with the degree of Mechanical Engineer. In the work of his profession his entire active service has been with the Western Gas Con- struction Company, one of the important industrial concerns of Fort Wayne and one whose operations extend into the most diverse sections of the Union. In his professional and executive capacity Mr. Stone has the general supervision of all practical operations of the institution, cx- cept the sales and finance departments. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Gas Institute, the Fort Wayne Commercial Club, besides being affiliated with the Sigma Chi college fraternity. In politics Mr. Stone is a Republican. In 1905 he was married to Miss Dorothy M. Greiwe, of New Bremen, Ohio, and they are popular in the social circles of their home city. They have no chil- dren. Mr. Stone is an enthusiast in outdoor sports, including baseball and
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